1994 Women's Rugby World Cup

1994 Women's Rugby World Cup
Tournament details
Host nation  Scotland
Dates 1994-04-11 – 1994-04-24
No. of nations 12
Champions   England
Tournament statistics
Matches played 31
1991
1998

The 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup was the second world cup for women. It was originally scheduled to be held in the Amsterdam, Netherlands (April 10–24) but was cancelled only weeks before. However, a replacement competition was organised around the same dates in Scotland. England beat the defending champions USA 38–23 in the final.

Background

The official reason for the cancellation was that the event organisers failed to get official endorsement of the event as the "Women's World Cup" from the International Rugby Board (IRB). The minutes of the 1993 Interim meeting of the IRB state the following about the "1994 Women's International Tournament":

"The Council agreed to defer consideration of participation by member unions in the tournament until such time as a formal request is received from the organizers."[1]

Hence not only was there uncertainty to whether it really was the "Women's World Cup" or not, but the IRB refused to endorse it regardless of its status – the "deferral" (above) was in practice a refusal to endorse as the next scheduled IRB meeting was only days before the event was due to start. It was not until 2009 that the IRB officially endorsed the event as a "world cup" when it published, for the first time, a list of previous winners.[2]

Because of this, the Unions of some countries decided not to pay team expenses (including New Zealand, where women's rugby was by now fully integrated in the national union, and ultimately others as well) or withdrew their entries. Several team members decided to go ahead and raised the money themselves, but the surrounding uncertainty of the event status and the financial risk from teams pulling out prompted the event organisers to (rather abruptly) cancel it.

The women who had trained so hard, and had gone to much trouble raising money etc., were so disappointed at the cancellation that an alternative tournament in Scotland was soon organised. despite the IRB threatening sanctions against unions taking part in this unendorsed event, it went ahead.

Officially it (and its predecessor in 1991) were never endorsed by the IRB the Scottish organisers did not pursue the issue. However, all of the participating teams regarded it as the "real" World Cup.

Eventually eleven of the original sixteen entrants took part – as well as New Zealand, Netherlands also withdrew from both participation as well as hosts, and Spain pulled out very late – after the groups had been drawn – and were replaced by a Scottish Students team. Italy and Germany were also notable absentees.

Once the event was underway proved to be a great success,[3] England exacting revenge for their 1991 defeat to USA, beating the defending champions 38–23 in the final.

Squads

Match Officials

J Fleming (Boroughmuir)[4]

Pool stages

Pool A

Team Won Drawn Lost For Against
 United States2002320
 Japan10110126
 Sweden0025121
[92]
1994-04-11 Sweden  0–111  United States Melrose [10/15/1]
[95]
1994-04-13 Japan  10–5  Sweden Melrose [3/11/2]
[98]
1994-04-15 Japan  0–121  United States Melrose [4/16/1]

Pool B

Team Won Drawn Lost For Against
 England200920
 Scotland1015126
 Russia0020117
[93]
1994-04-11 England  66–0  Russia Boroughmuir [19/1/1]
[96]
1994-04-13 Scotland  51–0  Russia Boroughmuir [4/2/1]
[99]
1994-04-15 Scotland  0–26  England Boroughmuir [5/20/1]

Pool C

Team Won Drawn Lost For Against
 France 2001088
 Ireland 1011836
Scotland Scottish Students 0021395
[-]
1994-04-11 Scottish Students Scotland 8–77  France West of Scotland RFC [-/-/-]
[-]
1994-04-13 Scottish Students Scotland 5–18  Ireland West of Scotland RFC [-/-/-]
[100]
1994-04-15 France  31–0  Ireland West of Scotland RFC [26/3/1]

Pool D

Team Won Drawn Lost For Against
 Wales 2004013
 Canada 1013311
 Kazakhstan 002857
[94]
1994-04-11 Canada  5–11  Wales Edinburgh Academicals RFC [16/10/3]
[97]
1994-04-13 Kazakhstan  8–29  Wales Edinburgh Academicals RFC [2/17/1]
[101]
1994-04-15 Canada  28–0  Kazakhstan Edinburgh Academicals RFC [11/3/1]

Plate competition

Round robin

Team Won Drawn Lost For Against Ladder
 Kazakhstan30083129th
 Sweden201465610th
 Russia102375711th
Scotland Scottish Students003246512th
[102]
1994-04-17 Russia  13–20  Sweden Kirkcaldy [3/12/1]
[-]
1994-04-17 Scottish Students Scotland 0–27  Kazakhstan Kirkcaldy [-/-/-]

[-]
1994-04-19 Scottish Students Scotland 12–14  Sweden Gala [-/-/-]
[107]
1994-04-19 Kazakhstan  25–0  Russia Gala [4/4/1]

[112]
1994-04-21 Kazakhstan  31–12  Sweden Stirling County [5/13/1]
[-]
1994-04-21 Scottish Students Scotland 12–24  Russia Stirling County [-/-/-]

Plate final

[115]
1994-04-23 Kazakhstan  29–12  Sweden Boroughmuir [6/14/2]

Championship

Quarter-finals

[103]
1994-04-17 United States  76–0  Ireland Boroughmuir [17/4/1]
[104]
1994-04-17 England  24–10  Canada Gala [21/12/2]
[105]
1994-04-17 France  99–0  Japan Edinburgh Academicals RFC [27/5/2]
[106]
1994-04-17 Scotland  0–8  Wales Melrose [6/18/2]

Championship semi-finals

[108]
1994-04-20 United States  56–15  Wales Gala [18/19/2]
[109]
1994-04-20 England  18–6  France Gala [22/28/3]

Shield semi-finals

[110]
1994-04-20 Canada  57–0  Japan Melrose [13/6/1]
[111]
1994-04-20 Scotland  10–3  Ireland Melrose [7/5/3]

Shield 3rd/4th (7th place)

[113]
1994-04-23 Ireland  11–3  Japan Boroughmuir [6/7/1]

Shield final (5th place)

[114]
1994-04-23 Scotland  11–5  Canada Boroughmuir [8/14/1]

Cup 3rd/4th place

[116]
1994-04-24 France  27–0  Wales Edinburgh Academicals RFC [29/20/1]

Cup final

[117]
1994-04-24 England  38–23  United States Edinburgh Academicals RFC [23/19/3]
 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup Winners 

England
First title

See also

References

  1. IRB press release Archived December 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. "A History of the Women's World Cup". Users.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  3. "England beat Scotland to book place in last eight; Rugby Union." Times [London, England] 16 Apr. 1994 via http://womensrugbyhistory.blogspot.com/2009/12/world-cup-england-v-scotland.html
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